The first ODI between India and West Indies will be played on September 27 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Indian team will be without a few of their first-choice players, like Shreyas Iyer and Jasprit Bumrah, who are in the T20I squad for the Asian Games 2026 in Japan. However, India will still have the big guns in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the ODIs in the batting department.
Badrinath chose to open the Indian innings with Rohit Sharma and captain Shubman Gill. This meant that there was no place for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had scored a century in his last ODI against Afghanistan. Virat Kohli was picked for his No. 3 spot.
With Shreyas Iyer in Japan, the No. 4 spot has a lot of candidates, with Ruturaj Gaikwad, Naman Dhir, and Dhruv Jurel vying for the spot. Naman is coming off an incredible showing in the Sher-E-Punjab T20 league, scoring a tournament-leading 655 runs at a strike rate of almost 218. Dhruv Jurel has cemented his spot in India's Test XI as a batter alone.
However, Badrinath chose Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is also a CSK captain in the IPL, for the No. 4 role. His only century in the ODI format has come at the No. 4 spot against South Africa in 2025.
Badrinath went for veteran wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul at No. 5, with all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy following him. Kuldeep Yadav was chosen as the lone specialist spinner.
The pace batter chosen by Badrinath included Mohammed Siraj, Gurnoor Brar, and Prasidh Krishna. Auqib Nabi was not considered for the first ODI by Badrinath, and it remains to be seen when the Jammu and Kashmir pacer will make his India debut, as he was also benched in the Sri Lanka Test series.
Subramaniam Badrinath's India playing XI for the 1st ODI vs West Indies:
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (C), Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Gurnoor Brar.